Specializing in (but not confined to) psychedelic music from the past five decades.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Cinema Olympia) (1969)

This is the second album from Brazil's Gal Costa who was an important figure in the Tropicalia movement along with Gilberto Gil and Caetano Velosa, both of whom penned multiple songs for this album. This the first of her two self-titled albums, which are typically distinguished by the first song. From what I've heard of the Tropicalia movement, Costa seems to have taken it the farthest out into psychedelia, even more so than Os Mutantes. This album is full of intense psychedelic effects and styles like screeching wah-wah guitar, heavy delay and reverb, speaker pans, dissonant funk bass lines, innovative production techniques, etc. The list could go on all day. The album has a great combination of the distinctive Tropicalia style and psychedelia because it is based around good songs that are carefully experimented with in the studio. Costa's often wild vocal style also adds perfectly to the experimental style of the album.